"Actor: Anna"

• The Great Sopranos - Voice Of Firestone Performances | DVD | (07/07/2008) from £13.75   |  Saving you £3.24 (19.10%)   |  RRP £16.99

• A change in the weather | DVD | (25/09/2017) from £6.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In an attempt to revisit a creative collaboration and revive his marriage, a theatre director brings together a group of performers to spend a week with him and his wife in an isolated, mountainous part of southern France. As the work progresses, fiction and reality become blurred and there is a constant tension between the characters emotional lives and the nature of the work - an investigation into the changing nature of love. The couple are haunted by memories and dreams which, in the end, threaten not only the venture but the marriage itself. All this is underpinned by a sense of melancholy, reflected in the songs and music performed, and in the dramatic and implacably beautiful landscape.

• Handel: Tamerlano | DVD | (27/08/2014) from £24.25   |  Saving you £5.74 (23.67%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Handel's 1724 opera Tamerlano followed the success of his previous year's Giulio Cesare with another colourful historical costume drama. This time the setting is the court of "Timur the Tartar", who has just defeated the Turkish Sultan Bajazet at the battle of Angora. There are, naturally enough, romantic complications when both Tamerlano and his ally, the Greek Prince Andronico, fall in love with Bajazet's daughter Asteria. She, however, has plans to revenge her father's defeat. This production was directed by Jonathan Miller and staged in the intimate surroundings of the Goethe Theatre of Bad Lauchstadt as part of the 2001 Halle Handel Festival. Miller's sparse gold-draped sets, as well as the video direction, always lead the eye towards the singers and their splendidly decorative costumes. Mezzo Monica Bacelli looks a little too pretty beneath her moustache to be convincingly threatening as Tamerlano; soprano Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz is a full-blooded, perhaps overripe Asteria; and Thomas Randle tackles the very demanding tenor role of Bajazet. None of the voices are necessarily "authentic", but thanks to the musical direction of Trevor Pinnock--an experienced and sensitive Handelian--the performance always feels completely natural. In the pit Pinnock's English Concert are, as always, a delight. Anyone who has not yet discovered the sometimes arcane delights of Baroque opera will find much to encourage them here; seasoned opera seria buffs should not hesitate. On the DVD: Tamerlano comes handsomely packaged in a two-disc set with a colourful and informative booklet. The extra features put most other ArtHaus releases to shame. To begin with the "Score Plus" facility, which superimposes the score over the picture, will provide hours of joy (all DVD operas should have this as standard). There are subtitles in English, German, French or Spanish. There's a lengthy (40-minute) "Making of" documentary, which takes us behind the scenes with Jonathan Miller, Trevor Pinnock and their team at Sadler's Wells then in Halle. More material about the Handel Festival can be found in the "Interviews" section, the selection of "Historical Film Footage" from previous Festivals, and the illustrated "Interactive Chronolgy". The 16:9 picture is perfectly adequate, and the sound options are good PCM Stereo and Dolby 5.1. --Mark Walker

• Bigas Luna Collection | DVD | (26/03/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Golden Balls (1993): Ruthless stud Benito Gonzalez (Javier Bardem wants wealth women and to erect a skyscraper in his own honour. In order to achieve this he marries a sophisticated daughter of a rich banker Marta (Maria De Medeiros) but keeps mistress Claudia (Maribel Verdu) on the side. When Marta and Claudia realise they are both victims of Benito's greed things for Benito begin to crumble. Has Benito's luck finally left him? Jamon Jamon (1992): Headstrong senorita Silvia (Penelope Cruz) becomes pregnant to village Mummy's-boy Jose (Jordi Mulla). Silvia's father has left town and her mother Carmen (Anna Galiena) is forced to become the town prostitute. Jose's overbearing mother Conchita (Stefania Sandrelli) fears her son will marry the daughter of a scarlet woman and takes action...she hires sexy young Raul (Javier Bardem) who works in the ham factory and enjoys nude bullfighting to seduce Silvia. What ensues is a series of chaotic and frantic couplings testosterone overload breasts that taste of ham and a duel to the death with a side of bacon. Tit & The Moon (1994): Completing Bigas Luna's saucy Spanish trilogy that began with Jamon Jamon and Golden Balls The Tit and the Moon tells of a young boy's search for the perfect breast. Set in a colourful Catalan resort this exhuberant tale of lust and love is a coming of age story with a differnce. Tete is a nine year old boy who is consumed with jealousy at his baby brother's monopoly of his mum's nipples. After asking the moon for a breast of his own his prayers are answered with the arrival of Estrellita (Mathilda May) a beautiful French dancer. But the course of true love doesn't run smooth and Tete finds stiff competition for her affection. She is deeply in love with her cabaret partner Maurice the flatulent motorbike rider and is also being pursued by Miguel the hunky flamenco-singing teenager. Ages of Lulu (1990): The story of a young woman's descent into the kinky and dangerous sexual underground in Madrid.

• Neverland - The Complete Series | DVD | (04/02/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Back in 1991, Steven Spielberg came something of a cropper when he dug into the story of Peter Pan, and tried to establish what happened once everyone had grown up. Neverland has a lot more luck going the other way, though. It sets its story before the well known adventures of Peter Pan, and tries to find out just how he became who he was. To do this, it moves the story back to the start of the 20th Century, and crucially, pulls in a really impressive cast. Writer and director Nick Willing has brought together Charlie Rowe as Peter, along with Bob Hoskins as Smee--reprising the role he played in the aforementioned Hook. Then there's Anna Friel, Charles Dance, Keira Knightley voicing Tinkerbell, and Rhys Ifans stealing any scene he's let near as James Hook. It's Ifans who you long to see as much of on the screen, and Neverland doesn't disappoint. He does the role proud. This release sees the original mini-series brought together in one, and it's all the better for it. It's a rollicking adventure, with its ambitions firmly in entertaining a family audience. What's particularly impressive is that it finds interesting things to do with a bunch of characters familiar to most, if not all, of us to some extent. And, more than that, that familiarity adds to the fun. An excellent family adventure, with good, broad appeal. --Jon Foster

• Sacred Cargo | DVD | (24/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  When his priest brother is kidnapped in Russia helping an order of monks flee from neo-fascist terror a former U.S. Marine engages in desperate measures to close in on his violent enemies. Unfamiliar with Eastern European territory and just how vicious his disillusioned adversaries can be the ex-Marine must join forces with a Russian priest and a beautiful free-spirited journalist if his dangerous rescue mission is to succeed...

• Bathory: Countess of Blood | DVD | (28/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Bathory is based on the legends surrounding the life and deeds of Countess Elizabeth Bathory known as the greatest murderess in the history of mankind. Contrary to popular belief, Elizabeth Bathory was a modern Renaissance woman who ultimately fell victim to mens aspirations for power and wealth.

• Jean-Luc Godard Collection Vol.2 | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £35.08   |  Saving you £4.91 (12.30%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Titles Comprise: Pierrot Le Fou (1965) Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961) La Chinoise (1967) Le Petit Soldat (1963) Detective (1985)

• Augustus : The First Emperor | DVD | (20/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Augustus is equal parts history lesson and soap opera, and thoroughly engaging at all levels. Peter O'Toole plays Octavius/Augustus, heir to his doomed uncle Julius Caesar's command of the far-flung Roman empire. Surviving an assassination attempt and struck by news of the death of his old friend and ally, Agrippa (Ken Duken), in the same day, Octavius waxes nostalgic about his youthful exploits in Caesar's army (Benjamin Sadler plays the young Augustus in flashbacks) and his unprepared immersion in the deadly politics of the Mark Antony (Massimo Ghini) era. More immediate are Octavius' problems trying to stave off conspiracies by his wife Livia (Charlotte Rampling) to set up the emperor's stepson, Tiberius (Michele Bevilacqua), as heir, and talk his dutiful daughter Julia (Vittoria Belvedere) into a marriage she doesn't want. Roger Young directs this highly watchable costume drama, and O'Toole's golden presence makes the ancient intrigues tragically human. --Tom Keogh

• Period Drama: The House Of Mirth, The Madness Of King George, Land Girls | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  House Of MirthDirector Terence Davies' sumptuous adaptation of the Edith Wharton classic novel 'The House of Mirth' is a tragic love story set against a background of wealth and social hypocrisy in the turn of the century New York. The Madness Of King GeorgeIn 'The Madness of King George' George III (Nigel Hawthorne) begins to behave in an odd manner thirty years into his rule over England shouting obscenities at people spouting garbled rubbish and attacking his wife's young Mistress of the Robes Lady Pembroke (Amanda Donohoe). The Prince of Wales (Rupert Graves) is determined to see that his father is declared unfit to rule so he can become Regent and denies him access to those close to him. The Prime Minister is forced to intervene and sends his own doctor to help the King instead of the Prince's doctors and the King eventually begins to regain his sanity. Land GirlsIt's 1941. World War II continues to rage across Europe. The young men of England have been called to the front to fight. So back at home a new regiment is formed an army of England's young women who are dispatched across the countryside to pick up the slack known as 'The Land Girls'.

• Gluck: Iphigenie en Tauride -- Zurich Opera | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £25.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A performance of Gluck's 1774 opera which is based on Greek legend. Recorded live at the Zurich Opera House in 2001. William Christie conducts. Also a documentary 'Gluck - The Reformer' by Reiner E. Moritz. The psychological drama in a tense atmosphere of violated blood ties fears and traumas is underlined by Guth's use of huge masks and enclosed spaces.

• Murder Without Motive | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  On June 12 1985 an undercover New York City policeman was hassled by two black teenagers. A struggle ensued and shots were fired leaving one of the two teens dead. So begins this shocking story. Was the killing racially motivated or was it a justified use of force by a policeman?

• The Atrocity Exhibition | DVD | (29/05/2006) from £25.76   |  Saving you £-3.51 (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  Adapted from J.G. Ballard's infamous 1968 novel The Atrocity Exhibition is a brave unsettling and unconventional film. In a mental research institution things have gone terribly wrong. A doctor has enlisted patients and staff in staging a series of bizarre micro-dramas. Is it a record of his own mental breakdown or a collapse between the outer world of reality and the inner world of the psychopathologies which inhabit us all?

• Verdi - Otello | DVD | (04/11/2008) from £21.03   |  Saving you £3.96 (15.80%)   |  RRP £24.99

• Vault Of Horror | DVD | (25/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Vault Of Horror

• Wagner: Das Rheingold (Das Rheingold - Staged By La Fura Dels Baus) | DVD | (30/11/2009) from £21.25   |  Saving you £13.74 (64.66%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Oro Del Reno (L') / Das Rheingold (2 Dvd)

• Unforgiven (2 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Unforgiven is an exciting modern classic that rode off with four 1992 Academy Awards. Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired down-on-their-luck outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty offered by the vengeful prostitutes of the remote Wyoming town of Big Whiskey: Richard Harris is an ill-fated interloper a colourful killer-for–hire called English Bob. Gene Hackman is the sly and brutal local sheriff whose brand of Law enforcement ranges from unconventional to ruthless. Big trouble is coming to Big Whiskey...

• The Sherlock Holmes Catalogue - The Eligible Bachelor | DVD | (28/04/2003) from £19.30   |  Saving you £-9.31 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A little over-extended as a two-hour movie, The Eligible Bachelor was one of several such feature-length productions made (late 1992) in Granada Television's long-running Sherlock Holmes series. Based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, this TV movie finds Holmes (the ailing Jeremy Brett, playing an increasingly darker and more neurotic detective) and Dr. Watson (Edward Hardwicke) called upon to help in a case involving the disappearance of Henrietta Doran (Paris Jefferson), fiancé of the noble Lord Robert St Simon (Simon Williams), who was last seen with a former lover of St Simon's, Flora Millar (Joanna McCallum). The unimaginative Scotland Yard instantly arrests Millar on suspicion of foul play, but it is Holmes who has to find the missing woman. Fans of the entire series might best enjoy this slightly clunky programme, though there is much of interest about Brett's performance to recommend it. --Tom Keogh

• Kamikaze Girls | DVD | (14/01/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Meet Momoko (Kyoko Fukada from The Ring 2 and Dolls) a self-absorbed dreamer who fantasizes about fleeing her backcountry home and living life in 18th century Versailles. When she unexpectedly meets a rebellious Ichigo (Anna Tsuchiya from Dororo and Sakuran) a rough-and-tumble biker chick the two misfits from a unique friendship - together nothing can stop them! Born from the pages of favourite cult author Novala Takemoto Kamikaze Girls is a frenetic roller-coaster ride brimming with day-glo visuals and wild hilarity that you will never forget!

• As I Lay Dying | Blu Ray | (23/06/2014) from £10.78   |  Saving you £9.21 (46.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Adapted from the classic novel by William Faulkner As I Lay Dying is the story that chronicles the Bundren family as they traverse the Mississippi countryside to bring the body of their deceased mother Addie to her hometown for burial. Addie's husband Anse (Tim Blake Nelson) and their children Cash (Jim Parrack) Darl (James Franco) and three of their siblings leave the farm with her coffin - each affected by Addie's death in a profound and different way. Their road trip to Jefferson forty miles away is disrupted by every antagonistic force of nature or man: flooded rivers injury and accident a raging barn fire and not least of all - each individual character's personal turmoil which threaten the fabric of the family more than any outside force.